Hollow enclosures (“electronic enclosures”) are commonly used to house electrical or electronic components and circuits (“electronic assemblies”) of a variety of electronic products and instruments. The electronic enclosures serve to provide structural support to hold the electronic assemblies in place and also to protect or isolate the electronic assemblies from external environmental hazards (e.g., dust). The variety of electronic products and instruments using such electronic enclosures is diverse (e.g., consumer electronics, game consoles, handheld and desktop computers, industrial PC's, keyboards, computer input devices, pushbuttons, cell phones, smartphones, and charging stations, etc.).
An enclosure for an electronic instrument or product is an integral part of its design, playing a key role in its looks, presentation, value and quality perception. Electronic enclosures are generally rectangular in shape and are designed to house a specific electronic product or instrument (e.g., remote controls, cash register or calculator, etc.). The electronic enclosures are often made by fitting or joining together, for example, several shaped parts or sub-parts. For example, an electronic enclosure for a common computer keyboard includes a shaped top panel fitted on to a shaped semi-hollowed bottom panel. The two panels, which may be glued, screwed or fastened together, are shaped to form a hollow space or cavity to hold keyboard switches and circuits. The top panel may include cutouts for securely mounting and surrounding “keys” or pushbuttons. In the case of an electronic enclosure made of plastic, the shaped parts or sub-parts of the enclosure are commonly made by plastic injection processes using mold core/cavity splits.
A requirement of the plastic injection processes used to make the shaped parts is that the mold cores should eject freely from the injected plastic parts. This requirement prevents ledges, overhangs, or undercuts from being designed on the shaped parts or sub-parts that are used to assemble an electronic enclosure (e.g., a box-like enclosure). Thus, several parts (e.g., at least a top panel and a bottom panel) have to be used to assemble an electronic enclosure whose overall structure includes an undercut cavity. As a result of using several parts, unavoidable parting lines are formed where different parts are fitted or joined together in the enclosure assembly. Further, assembling electronic enclosures from several parts can be an expensive proposition.
Consideration is now being given to ways of making electronic enclosures.